Saturday, July 26, 2008

Little Queeg's Footballs and the Coon Mutiny

Within each of us is the blueprint of the universe. We are of it. It is of us. And that universe from the beginning to the end of time is the body of the Holy Ancient One.... And as each cell carries sealed within it the genotype of itself, so each of us is the whole universe. --Lawrence Kushner, Honey From the Rock: Visions of Jewish Mystical Renewal

As Dupree mentioned yesterday -- and I don't know what makes him think he's authorized to disclose our private conversations -- I'm not sure what this post will be about, but I like the way the title rolls off the tongue.

First of all, why am I involving myself in this ugly bidness of Charles Johnson's public auto-Sullivanization? Why do I care whether LGF or any other blog goes off the rails into the weird personal obsession of its improprietor? Why all the UGLY, FANATICAL, VICIOUS, and UNHINGED attacks on someone who THREATENS my crumbling worldview?

I'll tell you why: because I happen to feel very passionate about doing what comes naturally. In short, I have to blog about something, and this is about as easy as it gets. Low-hanging strawberries, as it were. A slack attack. Yes, the Raccoon is a strange animal, in that, when attacked, it will defend itself. But always in a light and cheerful manner, because as Sir Winston said, it costs you nothing to be polite when shooting the other fellow. (And Charles really needs to stop the whining. He sounds like Ibrahim Hooper, who is also constantly under vicious attacks.)

But I'm not going to continue in this vein, because the last thing I need is to draw attention to myself and have a bunch of humorless Liztards coming over and stinking up the joint. I get enough supportive emails and comments to know that I'm performing some kind of public service in articulating a widespread perception of the deterioration of what was once a Good Thing. But unlike other blogs, our desire is to keep this one a bit of a secret, and hide out in our little cooncoon slacktuary. No one is banned, but few are invited.

The problem is, when discussing these matters, you can kill a person over and over, but if they're too dim to understand that they're dead, where's the bloody satisfaction in that? This is why I don't argue with these people, because who argues with a zombie? I like the clean kill. But you can generally only get a clean kill with a noble and uncorrupted spirit who wishes to die to his lower self. Until that lower self is either dead or circling the drain, we don't have much to discuss. In opposing God, you'll just end up feeding and puffing up the very pride and hubris that causes your transtemporal myopia.

There's nothing I can say that would arouse these souls from their metaphysical slumber that I haven't said in the previous 1030 posts. As Roger Kimball wrote about some Darwinist nonsense, "one recalls David Hume’s remark about the absurdity of calling a difficulty what pretends to be a demonstration and endeavouring by that means to elude its force and evidence.” We can demonstrate again and again, but the Darwinian faithful will just talk about "'difficulties,' or 'anomalies,' or perhaps even 'problems' for the theory." But Darwinism can never be falsified for the True Believer.

We are mistaken to imagine that we can share the understanding of higher worlds with those who have remained behind. This is because the awareness of holier worlds shatters earthenware vessels unable to withstand the light.... It is as if there were gateways. And at each one there stands a guard who wants nothing from you. Except that you go away. He will do all in his great power to foil your ascent. But his power is only the evil in you. --Lawrence Kushner

Speaking of which, many people have noticed and commented upon Charles' strange choice of personal demon-guradians. I mean, who cares if some people believe that evolution reveals cosmic intelligence instead of unintelligent randomness? Charles suggests that he's concerned that such a belief will poison the minds of children and destroy science education.

Whatever. Surely it cannot have escaped his attention -- but I guess it has -- that there is not a shred of evidence to support his delusion, and abundant evidence for the opposite proposition: that loss of religious principles renders people shallow, stupid, and uncurious. If you can't look at what has become of our university system and see that, then you are just too committed to your delusion. Like I said, I enjoy the clean kill, so I'm not going to press the point.

In my opinion, our educational standards have plummeted largely as a result of the attempt by leftists -- who have obviously taken over the educational establishment -- to impose their radical secular values on impressionable children. These values are not inspiring, to say the least, unless you are one of those odd people who draws sustenance from the idea that humans are merely clever animals, that objective truth is a hoax, that absolute morality is a fraud, and that Darwinism provides a remotely aequate account of the human state.

In this context, for Charles to cast his lot with the monolithic left and shout down the opposition takes about as much courage as it does for Dan Rather to Speak Truth to Power by being critical of President Bush, or for a college dean to ban Daniel Pipes from speaking. Like Rather, he vows to never give up this battle for Truth and Decency, and to vanquish the shills and frauds who wish to brainwash the Children, who are our future!

As Theodore Dalrymple points out, for some reason these pompous atheistic types always flatter themselves "that they are saying something new and brave" when they're just trucking in well-worn philosophical cliches. They take themselves so seriously, and yet exhibit "sloppiness and lack of intellectual scruple, with the assumption of certainty where there is none," combining it "with adolescent shrillness and intolerance." That perfectly describes the coarse mentality of the neo-Liztard, does it not?

I wonder if Charles would feel differently if he actually had a child, and saw the kind of scientific garbage they are exposed to in our public schools? Because it's all of a piece, and it all pivots around the idea that man is not only nothing special, but a kind of pernicious aberration, a demon-spawn of Mother Nature. We're not just Darwinian machines, but not even good machines. We poison the planet! We're racists! We plunder the world's resources under the guise of capitalism!

But because we are only machines, our leftist masters may remake us with proper incentives put in place by the state. It's such an intrinsic assault on human dignity, so unworthy of Man, that any spiritually normal person would resist -- again, unless you believe there is nothing intrinsically noble in the human state. Raccoons would much prefer to die in the wilderness than serve these academonic Egyptians.

Darwinist tautology can normalize virtually anything. But once you understand that truth -- not to mention, virtue and beauty -- is real and that man is free, you are no longer a Darwinist. Man is only free -- and intelligent -- to the extent that he is free to choose truth. If, like the Darwinist Liztard, he is condemned by natural selection to understand only what his genes have been selected to understand... well, you figure it out.

As I said, I don't expect these immature folks to be able to connect the sociocultural and psychohistorical, let alone, cosmo-spiritual, dots. For whatever reason, Charles has decided to alienate the grown-ups and gear his message to an adolescent mentality for whom anti-Muslim sentiment provides a good outlet for their hypertestosteronic predickament. But you all know how difficult it is to argue with an omnipotent college student with just enough philosophy to render himself loud and stupid.

Charles persistently reduces this dispute to a bad-faith, false dichotomy that reveals a kind of blind hubris and profound absence of intellectual curiosity. That is, either you are a reductionist Darwinist or you are a young earth creationist, no matter how much you protest to the contrary. But in reality, it is a matter of two competing visions of evolution, one of which is complete and consistent, the other of which is of necessity neither. Nor can Darwinism ever be consistent and complete, for reasons that are intrinsic to its erroneous metaphysical assumptions.

Like all science, Darwinism attempts to unify multiplicity on a "deeper" or more interior plane, even while it can never account for such things as interiority, depth, and unity -- let alone interior depth or absolute unity. This is why whatever truth Darwinism is able to disclose fits easily into the paradigm of perennial religion, whereas Darwinism could never account for those religious truths that "cannot not be," since they abide on on eternal, interior and archetypal plane that obviously transcends Darwinism. Darwinism cannot address this plane without maiming and ultimately destroying Man: again, reductionistic Darwinism is a form of nonviolent resistance to transcendence, or intellectual fascism. Thus the totalitarian streak at LGF, whereby Charles, like Kos or Huffpo, bans heretics from his blog.

As I have mentioned in the past -- and this is only half-ironic -- perhaps this dispute between Raccoons and Darwinists is a result of both parties being in the right, at least insofar as the Darwinian theory applies to those who adopt it and thereby cash in their humanness. In other words, Darwinism does seem to adequately explain the simple mind of the Darwinist, just as it does any other animal. After all, a "reduced mind" would apparently call for a reductionistic explanation. If they want to say that they cannot know truth, who am I to argue?

The Liztard wishes for us to be as cynical and disillusioned as they are. But worse yet, they want to foist this toxic attitude upon innocent children. But I believe we should do the opposite, and cultivate the innate spirituality and mysticism of childhood. Instead of throwing cold water on their spirits, we should assist them in developing "in the direction of the true reality which the ordinary world calls illusion":

"This is what it should be, instead of making children ordinary, with that dull, vulgar common sense which becomes an inveterate habit.... This is like an acid, a destructive acid in the being, which takes away hope, certitude, confidence in future possibilities.... And if you [avoid] this when you are very small, you have much less difficulty than if later on you have to undo all the bad effects of a bad education, undo that kind of dull and vulgar common sense which makes it insipid, boring, and contradicts all the hopes, all the so-called illusions of beauty..."

I know that Future Leader will not only have an adequate scientific education, but he will appreciate the magic and mystery of science -- the extraordinarily weird privilege of living in a light-filled cosmos that is intelligible to human intelligence in such a way that it shatters any and all materialistic assumptions, which are just pernicious roadblocks to the discovery and development of our divine-human potential. The relationship between Reality and the Liztard's cold and desiccated version of scientistic half-truths is analogous to that between pornography and love. It is devoid of interior beauty, and therefore cannot be true, nor can it touch the soul of man.

Ordinary souls like you and I are the link between this world and the higher ones, shuttling back and forth, carrying buckets of light in our heads. --Lawrence Kushner

68 Comments:

Actually, that's probably just as well, since I have yet to develop the ability to be properly hilarious while making a serious point. Guess I'll just keep trying to sit quietly (well, except for the occasional giggles) and learn from the true masters of coonmedy.

Bob: Did you ever notice that many high school friends seem to get off the "growing up elevator" at a certain point and we stay on the elevator as it continues to go up. That's how I feel about Charles. Bob the elevator man announces... "Going Up. Next stop truth, beauty, and wisdom" and Charles jumps off shouting "there's no more floors up there!"

Lizards have wonderful eyesight-- for things that are moving. It's stationary,immutable things that they can't see. This is a scientific fact that explains so much about the Liztard Nation, and why they are unable to see the non-changeable, unmoved Truth.

It simply doesn't interest them because their system has not yet evolved enough to be curious about something that isn't moving; so they assume that it won't be food to satisfy their needs.

"But because we are only machines, our leftist masters may remake us with proper incentives put in place by the state. It's such an intrinsic assault on human dignity, so unworthy of Man, that any spiritually normal person would resist -- again, unless you believe there is nothing intrinsically noble in the human state. Raccoons would much prefer to die in the wilderness than serve these academonic Egyptians."

The first target of the quantifier is quality, and soon follows religion, poetry, imagination, truth and all sense of reverence and dignity.

The easy cynicism of the "...omnipotent college student with just enough philosophy to render himself loud and stupid..." can't grasp those concepts except in 2D, purposefully avoiding even the imitation of a third Dimension. Seen MTV lately? The unwitting absense of that which they ape. The GOod, The Beautiful and The True, reduced to the startling, the lewd and the in your face.

Oh My God... seems a resonable reaction.

"Darwinism does seem to adequately explain the simple mind of the Darwinist, just as it does any other animal. After all, a "reduced mind" would apparently call for a reductionistic explanation."

As I noted yesterday, to Van who pointed it out: That Dalrymple article bothered me when it was published a while back. I actually agree with some of his points about Dawkins & Harris, but he's just wrong about Dennett. Sure, Dennett talks about "intentions" - but that's not a contradiction, as he's the coiner of the term "intentional stance", which, well, explicitly says that "that he is writing in metaphors for the layman and that he could translate all his statements into a language without either moral evaluation or purpose included in it."

Van, re "the startling, the lewd, and their your face," I was just saying to DH yesterday that it seems like the most edgy, unique and perverse thing you can do these days (in our inverted culture) is to live a "vanilla" lifestyle.

Religion is one way to inspire people, like coal is one way to power equipment. The fact that there exist people for whom it's not necessary is a sign that it's not the only way. Even George Washington noted "the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure". (Feel free to take the cheap shot, but 'peculiar' then meant 'special' or 'remarkable', not 'odd'. :-> )

All those I've encountered who despise "Darwinism" misunderstand the place of evolution in the metaphysics of those they decry.

As a some time LGF reader I've tried to figure out how Israel is good, yet religion is bad, as you touched on prior to this post. That site has been infected with Obama shills, militant atheists, and knee-pad wearing cheerleaders, while Charles smiles approving and tosses more chum in the water with another I.D. thread. I really don't know how he gets up in the morning and looks at himself in the mirror.

His brain is digital, not analogue. He can't connect the dots. I don't know if you've noticed it, but it comes through in his photographs, which have a conspicuously autistic quality. Unlike, say, Lileks -- who has a wonderful aesthetic eye -- Charles has none. This is not intended as a criticism, but if one has no eye for beauty, one will have no eye for the divine.

Why is it "even" George Washington? Do you claim superiority of understanding to him?And speaking of cheap shots, I suppose your mind is wind powered as opposed to the coal fired boilers who come here.I used to think you had some promise of at least finding some common ground. In the last few days I've given that up as I see that you are simply a garden variety of baiter, and not even a master.

Ray said,"All those I've encountered who despise "Darwinism" misunderstand the place of evolution in the metaphysics of those they decry."

So you really are here to be understood. Okay,........ WE UNDERSTAND!.... and we have also moved beyond that understanding to something much more encompassing.Nobody here really cares to backtrack to your retrograde view of the world. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt, wore it out years ago and are tired of the broken record. Take it where somebody cares.

Disclaimer:All the above was written with a HUGE smile on my face and compassion in my heart. And as a blessing to show my deep compassion; May you, in your daily travels, continue to meet vast hordes of Churchladys who tell you what a wonderful Christian family you have in order for you to practice GETTING OVER IT!Cuz is right, you're getting boring dude.

Hoarhey - If you look up the remainder of that quote, you'll see why I said "even George Washington". He said, "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

So he was agreeing with Bob, but "even" so, he noted that religion was not a strictly universal need.

And I didn't mean anything in particular re: coal. Feel free to put "solar" in there if you like, and call mine "nuclear". You can make a quip about radioactive waste, then. :->

And Dupree - What would make it "fun" to flog me? Any particular response you're looking for? If I can accommodate you, I will...

(I don't know if you've noticed it, but it comes through in his photographs, which have a conspicuously autistic quality.)

Could you expand on this further someday. Especially as expressed in photography. I have to wonder what my photographs say about me.

I have not been able to find too much information on this particular aspect of autism.

I suspect my grandmother was autistic. Undiagnosed. I sometimes think my dad and I have inherited some of those same characteristics.

I see it in Ray's posts too. (Sorry, Ray)

Kind of a one track mind that is oblivious to anything around it. Heading somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

Is there any way to break out of this mindset? Because I would like to.

Are there any good books or words I could search to learn more about this particular aspect of autism: people who seem to function in society, but something is lacking? I ask this, knowing i probably have this kind of autism, as well.

I work in the oil field, and know the world is more than 10,000 years old.

But it takes a bigger leap of faith to believe everything in the world is a happiest of coincidences, a million monkeys on typewriters completing the Encyclopedia Britannica, than to believe in a Supreme Being.

BTW, note that if one accepts some allegorical elements in Genesis, and views it as a big picture, rather than an on the spot account, written for pre-scientific people, Genesis actually isn't terribly far off the accepted scientific timelines.

I don't think Petey meant autistic as in a diagnosis, but as an aesthetic quality (or lack thereof).

Regarding personal autism, it is obviously on an extremely wide spectrum, so it's hard to give specific advice without more details. In fact, it may be many other things, for example just undiagnosed depression which can cause a mental bluntness and loss of "dimensionality." All depressed people feel alienated from God, which is one of the most painful aspects of depression.

Often it's a matter of turning a curse into a gift. We are all "problems of God" in one way or another, and we all have to find a way to undo the knot and resolve the difficulty.

In Judaism in particular, spirituality is the struggle. Rabbi Steinsaltz says we should not even seek peace of mind, because "the spirit is at war... Man's question should not be how to escape the perpetual struggle but what form to give it, at what level to wage it." He goes on to say that "a little melancholy is possibly a good thing," just as "excessive good spirits can be dangerous."

We all have parts missing, but at the same time, we are the missing part of someone else. Just finding the other who complements you can be quite helpful. I can't believe that I am Mrs. G's missing part, but there you go.

I know for me, I didn't make much progress until I accepted myself for what I am, and instead of squelching my eccentricity, pulled out all the stops and allowed it to flourish.

(I don't know if you've noticed it, but it comes through in his photographs, which have a conspicuously autistic quality.)If we're analyzing his personality traits for disorder, what about the biggest one in evidence; humorlessness. Ever see a LOL, ROFL, "Good one" or any response to anything funny? Yet, if you've ever heard him on the radio he always has that inappropriate laugh thing going. It comes across as more than just a little creepy.

Agreed about the lack of humor of the neo-Liztards. But it didn't used to be that way. Speaking as a paleo-lizard who was one of the regulars back before there was even registration, the vibe was completely different, or I never would have stayed. Believe it or not, the level of wit was so high, that is was hard to keep up. This is why I was so shocked at the change in ambience, and the lurch toward lowbrow adolescent religion-bashing and the like. It's not the same place, but it obviously reflects the weird mentality of the guy at the top.

Speaking of General Washington, and empirical data, facts and such lately. If he had relied on just those things; statistics, facts and his “chances”, we would not be here right now. Round about the end of 1776 when the army under his command were about wiped out physically, mentally and only about 3,000 in number, a harsh winter, huge defeats, skin o the teeth retreats and facing at that time the greatest (by far compared to any other nation at the time) military force on the planet, and practically no Navy to speak of in essentially a coastal war, he kept going. In other words, every fact or piece of data he could hold in his hand told him to give up. Yet, he won. We won. It wasn’t numbers or good odds that won the war, because he didn’t have ‘em. It was spirit.

Great post as usual Bob, such economy and facility of language, C.S. Lewis is admiring. (Hi to Babbazee). It is interesting to actually watch the "Evolution" of the process at LGF.

First the disagreement with those that believe in creation, (in some manner). Then the dismissal of any creation idea, or theory, that cannot be mocked as a "Young Earther," variant.

The shutting down of debate, much like the Algore "greenearther," acolytes. And now slowly the coupling and association of creationism with radical Islam. I never thought Charles was so simple and obvious.

It is not enough to be in disagreement with an idea you oppose, no we must demonize that idea and those that hold to that idea. All under the laughable rubric of "it is for the children!" And of course the 1st amendment that apparently had only one function...to guard all freedom loving Americans from any encounter with any mention of God.

Why is it modern secularism must do all its deeds in the "name of the children?" Is it because such a noble and holy cause is an excuse for any boorish behavior?

Essentially what the Lizards possess is a keen grasp of rhetoric, which they use to dismiss any opposition. One must admire the thoroughness of the Lizard takeover of academia, for instance.

On a purely practical note it would appear that the Lizard team dominates the field of play; so the question for raccoons is what is missing from the raccoon arsenal and what tactics are being overlooked?

Why not rip a page from the Lizard playbook and see what can be done?

P.S I am a professor at a major university. I am tenured; my job is quite lucrative, pleasant, and secure. I certainly enjoy it to the hilt.

"In my opinion, our educational standards have plummeted largely as a result of the attempt by leftists -- who have obviously taken over the educational establishment -- to impose their radical secular values on impressionable children. These values are not inspiring, to say the least, unless you are one of those odd people who draws sustenance from the idea that humans are merely clever animals, that objective truth is a hoax, that absolute morality is a fraud, and that Darwinism provides a remotely aequate account of the human state."

Aye aye! You know, it's odd that Darweeinie can't see that during the 17, 18 and half of the 1900's we had Bibles in our schools and prayer. No one was fearful to mention God, decency and timeless principles were taught, and there was a framework of self evident truth's that Darweenies refuse to see, or if they do see they view them as threats to our liberty.

And yet, the United States didn't become the theocratic dictatorship that Darweenies fear so much.But they ignore history and rewrite it in their own suckular image.

Suckularism is devoid of life, devoid of absolutes and has no essense of Good, Beauty nor Truth.

Our entire education system is a garbage scowl and all they are worried about is the mere mention of a Creator and that design by Intelligence is so obvious.

So they attack anyone that even questions their cult of randumbness.Destny is the enemy they fling their crap at.

All the while ignoring the real danger of the cult of Suckularistic Darwinism which is a natural expression of Leftism, Communism and Fascism.

That is where education with absolute truth ripped out of it and replaced with a borglike groupthink leads.

They got their Wall and they can't see beyond it.No liberty there, no freedom to think outside the Wall, just cold. Dead. Nihilism.

Oh my goodness, Bob. I was just commenting along the lines of that last paragraph of yours yesterday. What synchronicity! This has been on my mind all day, ever since encountering Ray's sad loss of wonder yesterday, and since I got a science report in my e-mail this morning. And here you put it so very well in today's post.

"I know that Future Leader will not only have an adequate scientific education, but he will appreciate the magic and mystery of science -- the extraordinarily weird privilege of living in a light-filled cosmos that is intelligible to human intelligence in such a way that it shatters any and all materialistic assumptions, which are just pernicious roadblocks to the discovery and development of our divine-human potential. The relationship between Reality and the Liztard's cold and desiccated version of scientistic half-truths is analogous to that between pornography and love. It is devoid of interior beauty, and therefore cannot be true, nor can it touch the soul of man."

I just wanted to read that again. It expresses what I was thinking so well.

Susannah - Of course I can feel a sense of wonder, to reply to your comment from yesterday. "To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful." - Robert Heinlein. Indeed, it's that sense of wonder that drives me to learn as much as I can about everything I can.

Seems to me Darwinism is turning out to be the barbituate of philosophies. I've known people heavily addicted to actual drugs that weren't as creative at avoiding any possible alterations to their path.

See you've stuck to the known template: still trying to foist Your version of what must be done to 'achieve spirituality', Raccoons are, Bob should, Ego blah blah blah. Hmmm... dullard is missing & isn't the Gates thing new?

What's the source of your construct?

Get the sense you're working hard from the bottom-up, trudging each step.

No Light there.

I reject your vision, & constipated, plodding you-can-there-from-down-here works doctrine. Hey, if it floats your boat, have at it for yourself. Good luck with that.

Me, I'm a Grace-&-Faith-gifted-from-Okinda gal. Works don't cut it & nobody's ever going to be good-enough, no matter how much they try.

Life is a gift from O, and no way I'm rejecting that blessing by pulling away from it. Withdrawing is gutless, weinie & for chickens.

I'm with "Rabbi Steinsaltz (who) says we should not even seek peace of mind, because "the spirit is at war... Man's question should not be how to escape the perpetual struggle but what form to give it, at what level to wage it.""

The only gate I'm concerned about is the one where O can say:'I never gnu you - you're outta here'.

Ray, I read through that whole thread you linked and I still can't figure out your purpose there (or here).

(BTW, oh my goodness, has Smoov posted lately? :( )

Not to be a too much of a simpleton about things (as I usually am, I fear) but: It seems to me like you are deliberately misunderstanding Bob and then strewing mathematical or scientific facts as red herrings along the way.

Even young-earth creationists believe in natural selection, for instance. ??? I'm a bit confused that you don't get that. You won't find even the Answers in Genesis folks arguing against natural selection. They hold that one *kind* can't evolve into another *kind.* I tend to agree with them, frankly. (Your dinosaur earbones, for example, are still dino ear bones, not people--or even mammal--ear bones, after all that change.)

But Bob has no problem with even that. So... ??? What's your purpose? Are you just here to figure out for yourself whether chemical-to-people evolution renders God unnecessary? I'm "coonfused."

I'm glad you still have the capacity to wonder at things. I mean that sincerely.

There are gates demanding the abondonment of various ego formations: a sense of pride in accomplishment, a feeling of entitlement to the fruit of one's works, attachment to persons or things.

And I'll bet your understanding (head knowledge) of those "mileposts" are extremely ridgid and stilted and they need to be met on your timetable or else you are failing in your journey "upward". I'll venture a guess that you probably read and or saw 'Into The Wild' and were inspired by another puckerbutt trying to force his transformation onto Reality on his own timetable. Look what happened to that poor dumb bastard. And another guess that you're going to vote for Obama, another utopianist who is going to try and foist "solutions" on us in accordance with his own twisted view of reality.WAKE THE FUCK UP!

A racoon realizes that all these things happen naturally and the correct understanding of them comes if he only cleaves himself to truth and stays on the path. All things in their due time. They just happen without one even knowing what happened or what it truly means until after the transformation. It's called Faith.Loosen up, your knuckles have turned white.

Aboringmouse (2:53), I'm sorry, I didn't have time to reply today. I was busy enjoying the life O graced me with, unworthy of it as I may be. I have no illusion that this little heaven in which I dwell is anything but a lovely and ephemeral dream. It is and will be seasoned with challenges, which I hope to meet with grace and humility. All that I have and all that I am that are worth having and being are not of my own doing, not really. There is a job I am supposed to be doing here, just like everyone else. Part of that job is to simply learn and grow and direct mySoph toward the light. Part of it is, O-->Ksionally, to listen to that quiet but insistent Voice which has never yet lead me astray (but which, when I have followed, has led to some marvelous experiences). And part of it is to simply be happy, to love O with all my mind, heart and soul, and to rejoice in the world, warts and all, because it is the ultimate lOve song from Father to children.

You would have me spit on all of that, in favor of withdrawal and detachment. There may be time enough for that, someday when I am called from the life I have been given. But for now, I'll practice my Chin Fu Do, slurp down way too much froth, and even attempt the tricksy Low Gong from time to time.

And for a different take (cause what else is there to do in the wee small hours that won't wake the household):

Fear and rancour? You may call raccoons a lot of things - fierce, stubborn, preternaturally fixated on food washing, but fearful? Who has time? Rancour? Dude, I shower.

Carnal desires? Mmmm... meat. I make fantastic carnitas. Just the thought is making my tummy rumble...

Pride? Well, yeah, I take great pride in my marvelous ability to fearlessly step off cliffs and plummet a long way down. Because then I get to climb back up again, maybe find a new route, donchu know.

Entitlement? You mean, there are handouts available? Suh-weet! Gimme gimme!

Attachment tonoemallifw? (LOL - those are the kind of typos my phone comes up with; let's try that again :D) Attachment to normal life? I got a good look at normal this week - thanks, but no thanks. My life is delightfully strange (to me at least; I suspect most would find it dreadfully dull). Attachment to things? Hm, nope, I can't say that's much of an issue. Remind me sometime to explain "Buddha Ball." Attachment to people? Well, duh, one of the ways we can gno O (and know that O is love) is through loving others. I've seen people who can't become attached. It is truly tragic.

Hell yes, I'm attached to people. It is incredible to love so much; grinchlike, my heart has expanded beyond my wildest imaginings since wandering in here (and I thought it was plenty big before). This has nothing to do with carnality, though as Bob has noted there is certainly the erotic which comes about when soul tpuches soul. If you don't have that, then you have my deep and heartfelt sorrow on your behalf. May your heart be broken - and put back together the way it was meant to be. It'll hurt, but it's a Good pain, I promise.

Susannah - Coons here seem to think that "Darwinists" deny all the beautiful things about being human. I don't see even Dawkins (who's sort of the Jerry Falwell of atheists) doing that, just having a different idea of how those things are formed and constituted.

What's really weird is being accused of 'missing the forest for the trees', when extracting general principles from particulars is what science types like to do...

Well said! Life is supposed to be a Joy, a delight. The kind of life anon. is so obsessed that we live sounds depressing, dull and devoid of Joy.

No thanks. I'm with Julie (well, not literally, but in spirit).I'm quite satisfied with my delightfully strange life.

I find it odd that some folks, like anon., seem to think that desire and fullfillment is bad.

Desire is only bad if we desire the below above the above.

If you, anon., wanna feel guilty about enjoying life, and all the blessings our Father bestows upon us then that's your choice (and it's not a good one).

But don't try to convince others to join you in self flaggelation.There's more than enough pain in the world. Ain't no need to create more, even if it is for yourself.That kinda pain is without value,'cause it's self imposed.

As for me n' my Den, we will happily serve the Lord and enjoy His countless gifts, be they material or spiritual. And we will give thanks! :^)

Speakin' of thanks, I wanna thank Sal for the gift she sent us! Thanks Sal! You are a Godsend!

"In a way, each of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be *the actual* El Guapo!"

Of course, sewing like the wind is one of many ways to defeat El Guapo. :^)

Very apt on Darwinists and the university. We must always remember that the objective of the Left is Control and one of the chief tools to gain control is Impoverishment. Anything that weakens the mind, the will or the economy is worthy of their use and abuse.

No one who has a truly classical liberal mindset can advocate for the tools of Impoverishment.

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About Me

Location: Floating in His Cloud-Hidden Bobservatory, Inside the Centers for Spiritual Disease Control and Pretension, Tonga

Who spirals down the celestial firepole on wings of slack, seizes the wheel of the cosmic bus, and embarks upin a bewilderness adventure of higher nondoodling? Who, haloed be his gnome, loiters on the threshold of the transdimensional doorway, looking for handouts from Petey? Who, with his doppelgägster and testy snideprick, Cousin Dupree, wields the pliers and blowtorch of fine insultainment for the ridicure of assouls? Who is the gentleman loaffeur who yoinks the sword from the stoned philosopher and shoves it in the breadbasket of metaphysical ignorance and tenure? Whose New Testavus for the Restavus blows the locked doors of the empyrean off their rusty old hinges and sheds a beam of intense darkness on the world enigma? Who is the Biggest Fakir of the Vertical Church of God Knows What, channeling the roaring torrent of 〇 into the feeble stream of cyberspace? Who is the masked pandit who lobs the first water balloon out the motel window at the annual Raccoon convention? Who is your nonlocal partner in disorganized crimethink? Shut your mouth! But I'm talkin' about bʘb! Then we can dig it!